It is only natural to wonder exactly where bed bugs are hiding in your bed or near your bed. Upon first glance, it is nearly impossible to see any bed bugs on a bed that has been infested, but underneath the clean and uniform appearance of a freshly made-up bed, hundreds of blood-sucking bed bugs can easily be hiding. The bugs do not wander out in the open, especially during the day. The sole goal of a bed bug is not to be suspected or seen by its host, which means that all it can do once discovered, is penetrate deeper and deeper into surfaces and obscure areas of a bed. The mattress is one such area of a bed that bed bugs may choose to harborage in first. It is the closest part of the bed to the human body and pest control professionals in Oakville frequently begin their treatment procedures against bed bugs with the mattress.
The problem with a bed bug-infested mattress is that there are only a small number of ways to try and salvage a mattress once an infestation has overtaken it. Pest control professionals can treat a mattress with an infestation. The process may involve treating the baseboards of the room containing the mattress first to ensure that any bugs that fall off the mattress during treatment will run into residual poison once they seek shelter under the gap where the walls meet the floor. Then, utilizing either steam or bed bug insecticides, the exterminator will apply the steam or poison to every crack, crevice, and fold of the mattress to kill any active bugs out in the open. Particular attention will be given to the seams, corners, and edges of the mattress where bed bugs group and lay eggs, as well as to any rips and tears leading into the interior of the mattress.
Once a mattress has been treated, bed bug encasements are then applied to the mattress to enclose it inside of a bedbug-proof cover that will trap any lingering bugs inside of the mattress with no way to escape. This process is known as desiccation, which means that the bugs trapped inside of the mattress will starve to death over time since they cannot reach a host to feed. Since bed bugs have been known to live 12-16 months without food in laboratory settings, the encasements will need to stay on the mattress and box spring for at least 16 months to ensure death.
Pest control professionals possess ways to salvage a bed bug-infested mattress that involves treating the mattress with either hot steam or residual insecticides. Encasements are then placed over the mattress and box spring to starve any remaining bugs to death. Some professionals may feel that a mattress is too far gone to be salvaged. Each case is different and can be assessed in a number of different ways to ensure elimination.